Constant nursing at night-help!

11-11-2008, 11:44 AM

I had our baby at home and since he was 2 hours hold he's been in my bed. DH and I haven't slept together in MONTHS due to his snoring so I sleep in our bedrooms loft on a mattress on the floor. He is 4 months old exactly right now and wakes up 5-6 times during the night to nurse. He won't go to sleep for the night until 10:30 at least and sometimes not until about mid-night and wakes up 7/8am I am EXHAUSTED to say the least! I have 4 other children whom I homeschool and I am tired of being a zombie. I noticed that by sleeping next to him that when I moved, he woke up so I put his crib mattress on the floor next to my mattress and thought that would help but he still wakes up just as much. How do I get this little guy to sleep more often? I can live with 1-2 times a night just not as much as he does. AND how do I get him to go to sleep earlier? I know he can't be getting as much sleep as he needs.

Naps are a different animal altogether! He will nap for 5-10 min. max unless he's in his swing or we are going somewhere and he's in his carseat. Any advice there?

this sounds like a challenge. i would first exhaust food allergies to determine if there is anything interfering w/his sleep. allergies are notorious for causing sleep disturbances. closely examine the foods that you are eating. wheat, dairy, eggs are common culprits. here's more info at Dr. Sears Website.

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Yes Brenda, that seems like a tough challenge. At 4m old is when I finally figured out my 2nd was allergic to dairy. Cutting that out helped his sleeping.
Did you mean the baby was snoring or your DH?
If it is your baby, maybe sleeping reclining would help, like he has a cold or phlegm from an allergy for example.
Any more info you could tell us?

The allergy idea is interesting; my family has many delayed allergies as well as myself. I don't do much about mine or anybody else's and I use to eliminate mine before becoming PG but haven't gone back to that diet since. I am intrigued to know if I were to eliminate dairy and gluten again if that would actually help him to sleep more? It's just really, really hard to eliminate those two foods and affording them is even worse, KWIM? But I am willing to work it out and give it a try!

I like all I have read by Dr. Sears, I will go read up on what he has to say, thank you SO much for your advice! I look forward to some sleep soon!

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Well you might try just one first (to eliminate) if the idea of doing that again seems to much..... but on the other hand if you take out both you might know quicker and then later slowly introduce one back to see.
Have any of your other children been sensitive? Do you or the baby get eczema or red patches on your skin?

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Our whole family has delayed allergies of some kind so this isn't surprising to me at all. I have been on a CF/GF diet before and it is difficult but it certainly made me feel better. It was just a difficult one to be on and I hated how I couldn't eat certain things. But to sleep again and help baby sleep it would be more worth it.

I do not have eczema nor does baby but eczema does run in the family; DH has it BAD on his hands and DS #1 had it severely bad on his diaper area, behind the knees and inside of elbows and sometimes beyond. ODD had issues with me drinking milk and did better without but her pain was obvious to me.

For now I think I will slowly ease back into the diet I once used starting with dairy. I so hope it helps! He woke up about every hour or less last night. I am BEYOND tired today with so much to do!